Wednesday, 13 July 2016

Raw Food for Dalmatians

July and August are two very expensive months in this household this year. It seems that everything always happens together, and as I prepare for a move that should begin to happen next week, I have suddenly realised that my car tax is about to expire and I have that on my plate too. If a move and a rather expensive car tax in the region of £300 for the year are not enough to contend with, you may have also seen that I am finally getting the puppy of my dreams.

I have wanted a dog for as long as I can remember, right from a young girl, my own dog has always stolen the top spot on my Christmas list, but it was never going to happen because my family have always had cats. I swore to myself that one day, when I was in a position to take on a puppy, then that is exactly what I was going to do.

As with anything puppies and dogs are not cheap, they come with a price tag that extends far past the initial cost of buying a puppy. Puppies need their jabs, they need microchipping, they need defleaing and deworming on a monthly basis, and they need to eat multiple times a day. Taking on a dog is not a cheap thing to do, but oh my is it worth it. I am not sparing any expense when it comes to making sure this pup has everything he needs, and I am considering cash lender Vivus to pay the annual pet insurance off in one lump sum.

We pick Lux up on the 6th August and I cannot wait to bring him home. We have picked a Dalmatian Puppy, and that alone has caused some people to think I am crazy (more so than usual). Dalmatians have an array of health issues, some that can be levitated by the diet that they eat, other's such as deafness which of course is a life long commitment.

I have spent the last few months researching the Dalmatian breed, and when I say researching I mean extensive. I know what I am taking on, one of the ways in which I am demonstrating this knowledge is by making the executive decision to stay well away from manufactured dog food. The reasoning behind this is because I need to provide little Lux with a low purine diet, since it is the purines that have the potential to make him sick.

You see Dalmatians carry a genetic mutation that alters the way in which they metabolize and pass purines (Similar to gout). Purines are found in many foods, food that we all eat, but higher levels of purines are found in meats. Normally purines are broken down in this way:

Purines are converted to hypoxanthine.

Hypoxanthine is converted to xanthine.

Xanthine is converted to uric acid.

Uric acid is converted to allantoin, which is excreted in the urine.

When some humans ingest foods high in purines, they develop gout or kidney stones. When some Dalmatians ingest those foods, they develop urinary stones and in particular those known as "purine" or "urate" stones.

It is safe to say that the majority of the Dalmatian breed cannot perform step 4, which is exactly why their urine contains very high levels of uric acid. This might be enough to scare some people away from this beautiful breed, but I believe it is all about balance. I will be feeding Lux a range of home cooked meals that will all be lower in purines and high in protein. Some people seem to get confused and think that they need to withhold protein, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact refraining from including protein in their diet will do more damage than it will good. It's all about making conscious choices and opting for protein sources with lower purine content like chicken or turkey as opposed to liver and organ meats.

My aim is to essentially provide Lux with a clean eating diet for dogs, many people have opted to avoid the manufactured dog products for their Dalmatians, with the majority opting for a raw food diet that consists of raw meat. Now although I am going with this, I wont be letting Lux eat raw meat, I will prepare it and cool it so that I know it's cooked through for him. The meals will be consist of many things you don't usually associate with feeding dogs:

- Eggs - Hard boiled, scrambled

- Porridge

- Weetabix

- Tuna

- Turkey

- Chicken

- Vegetables - Broccolli, Sweet Potato, Potato, Carrot

- Fruit - Apple

It might all sound crazy, but realistically I think it's going to be really beneficial. You can of course buy specially made food for your Dalmatian but I fail to see the point, when you can provide everything you need without throwing all that money at a food that could be made out of pretty much anything.

So that's my latest mission, clean eating for dog's! I might not be able to get my 5 year old to eat vegetables, but I don't think getting Lux to play ball is going to be to difficult.

I'll be sharing his eating with you all in the next month or so, and you can witness first hand how he is getting on!

7 comments:

Oh my gosh, he is adorable. His diet completely makes sense, and it won't be any bother once you're used to the routine! I am desperate to get a dog as well but living abroad has put a stop to that, and the fact that my husband is slightly allergic means we have to find a breed he can cope with! Good luck with it all and enjoy! :)

So cute! I hadn't realised they needed such careful care. I think you are right to cook the food. I fed raw turkey mince to our cats when we first had them for a little while as that was what the breeder used. They made the most horrible smells on it.